


The Leg Man

by MrUndisclosed



Series: NSR- Withinfinite [6]
Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Children are utterly without mercy, Drawing your close friends, Flirting, Friendship, Zuke is into some strange things but not that strange right?, shameless flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 17:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrUndisclosed/pseuds/MrUndisclosed
Summary: "He's the leg man isn't he?"Children just ask the damndest questions, don't they? Has Eve been oversharing again? Can Mayday be trusted not to corrupt the innocent and Zuke do you REALLY have a thing for legs? We find out the answer to all of these questions in another slice of NSR nonsense.
Series: NSR- Withinfinite [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151441
Kudos: 16





	The Leg Man

The afternoon is a slow one and there’s naught but the scratching of pencils on paper. Soft stokes, sure strokes, not the rattling hiss of rushed sketches but the long glide of assurity. There’s a faint battering of rain, on the high sloped windows and the only other sound. The only other noise is the chattering of Mayday’s teeth. 

“This is clearly abuse.” Mayday gripes, not for the first time. “This is clearly a punishment I do not deserve.” 

“It’s not.” Zuke is leaning back in a chair, both feet up on a table. “This is the price of admission.” He tells Mayday who can only scowl across the room at the artist behind her easel. 

“They talk a lot for models.” Yinu was a child but they have that childish superpower to just instantly stab at you with words. “Are they supposed to talk?” 

“Not really.” Eve replies working away. “There’s no rule against it but it’s probably a faux pas.” 

“She’s speaking her fancy art lingo at me, Zuke translate.” Mayday demands and Zuke looks down his nose at Mayday. Not to be rude but because the pose he’d selected demanded he do so, he’d elected to be comfortable after all. He’d been at Eve’s mercy before...he’d been sketched, catalogued, defined and stored in more forms of media than he cared to admit. 

“Means you’re doing something a lil awkward or weird.” Zuke tells her. Which considering that Mayday had opted to stand on one leg and hold her guitar overhead for her pose….was probably a fair cop. “Just deal with it Mayday, this is kinda...the easy part.” 

“I wanna put my foot down.” Mayday wheezes wobbling from side to side. “Lemme put my foot down, my leg hurts.” 

“You picked the pose.” Eve tells her and Yinu leans around their little art set. The tiny pianist was dressed rather perfectly for all of this. A little smock that seemed smudged aesthetically rather than artistically and their curls were protected under a large beret that at times slid over their eyes. Leading to a constant battle to retain vision. 

“I told you that you’d get sore.” Yinu points to a little chair, the one Zuke had claimed. “He has the right idea, a comfy pose that’s simple to hold…” She looks between the two rockers. “But yours is a lot nicer to draw.” 

“Ha.” Mayday peers back at Zuke. “Vindication.” 

“For what?” Zuke laughs a little. “You’re in agony.”

“But I’m more interesting to draw.” Mayday purrs. “Yes this is how it is for the front man, keeping all eyes on her.” 

“Eve, who's better to draw?”

“You.” Eve replies and Mayday can’t see her smile behind the easel, but she can hear the thing spreading across her two tone face. 

“That’s not fair. She wants boooooooooooooooooo-” Mayday remembers Yinu exists in the room and it’s a long, drawn out word as she hunts for any other word she can salvage this situation with. Yinu was like...nine...but a nine year old could remember every awful thing they heard and parrot it forever. The idea of corrupting Yinu’s picturesque innocence was...well. 

Yinu’s mom would be mad. Mayday remembers Yinu’s mom being a giant red plant monster who tried to hurl her into the ocean one time. 

Eve for the first time leans around the easel, an eyebrow raised just enough to prove she was equally curious about the verbal gymnastics about to take place. Mayday turns to Zuke, whose smile has stopped being charming and become the very picture of vulpine. 

“Ooooooooore you to death with more of your awful art talk.” Mayday feels like she stuck the landing. Yinu looks at Eve and then at Zuke, somehow and in some way a cog turns and she makes a face. Pointing at Zuke. 

“He’s the leg guy isn’t he?” Yinu asks and the sound of a pencil shattering echoes through the gallery. The chair Zukes on creaks. Mayday senses blood in the water and she pounces. “Oh Eve you broke your pencil do yo-”

“No,” Eve speaks quickly, “it’s quite alright Yinu I have a legion of spares.” She scrambles to grab another and the drawing gets more frenzied. Big, sweeping, wild, across the borders of her picture movements. The diva has tilted...

“LEG. GUY.” She says it outloud, wields the words like clubs. “Yinu, whatever are you talking about?” Mayday can ask the worst questions in the voice of an angel, pure and soft and Zuke goes to move. “AH. Hold the pose, Zuke...you’re very tricky to draw.” She orders and Zuke makes a low sound, his eyes slide to Eve who has gone back behind the canvas. There’s a lot of scratching sounds. 

“Oh?” Yinu wasn’t expecting conversation. “Umm one time Eve was talking with Neon J about legs.” Yinu said sketching slowly, aware that for some reason everyone was paying attention to her. She wasn’t embarrassed, you can’t be a world renowned performer and shirk from the audience but...what was she doing to keep their attention? 

“Oh, Neon J.” Mayday goes on. “He’s nice.”

“He is!” Yinu agrees. “He is very bad at jigsaws though and board games.” Yinu sounds a little sad at that but Eve is privately proud that the man has been able to convince the child he’s bad. He’d love to hear that, he tries so hard to be bad at things for her. “He and Eve were talking once about legs.” 

“Oh...what about legs?” Mayday pries and Zuke tries to think of a new topic, anything that isn’t this topic. Do not make a child say these things, Mayday...do not make this the worst thing in the world. Is all this to get a new pose? You fiend!? 

“Hmm,” Yinu holds up their pencil, thumb part way up to try and get a sense of scale. Art was hard but it felt like a skill worth honing. It was also relaxing in a different way from music, you could really draw anything and anywhere. Music required an instrument and at times you just couldn’t lug a piano around. Truth be told the little digital keyboards she kept seeing had started to appeal to her for portability alone. 

“Mister J has some of his original leg.” Yinu says the sentence as if it’s a very normal thing but Mayday suddenly feels awkward. It’s easy to forget Neon J wasn’t always a machine, he looks so much like one the idea he was anything else is strange to parse. But no, there used to be a man but now there was so much more. But so much less at the exact same time. 

“Eve was helping him with…” Yinu leans her head to one side. “With...wax.” She goes on and Eve coughs a little. “He said his leg felt hairy to him and had never tried waxing before. I’m not totally sure what that means but he seemed excited.”

“May…” Zuke coughs. “Please control yourself.” Zuke begs. 

“Well Yinu sometimes you get hairy legs and the best way to get rid of the hair is with wax.” She instructs the child, she may well do it one day this wasn’t a taboo topic. “You put hot wax on the hair and rip it off!” 

Yinu hisses at the very idea. “Oh that must hurt!” Yinu gasps looking at Eve, her eyes trailing down to Eve’s very long legs. “Oh wow that must really hurt.”

Mayday wheezes, biting down on her lower lip. “Oh yeah, it’s a lil rough.” She manages to force the words out. 

“Why would you do that to mister J?” Yinu asks Eve, almost accusatory in the look of hurt and horror on her cherubic little face. Mouth agape, beret falling to cover her shocked wide eyes, a great big mouth full of horror. 

“I...it’s very normal!” Eve tells Yinu. “It hurts but a lot of people do it, you might do it one day.”

“I don’t think so!” Yinu gasps. “My legs don’t have hair!” Yinu was horrified, oh no what if they got hairy? Oh no she’d have to get hot wax on her legs and oh no someone would rip it all off! “Why would mister J want that?” 

“He’d never done it before.” Eve went on again. “You know what J is like.” She goes on and looks at Yinu. No actually she...probably didn’t. She didn’t have the conversations with J that she had. J was...fantastic at people. Scary at people Almost methodical at people. He was able to slide into any group and just blend in, fit in and belong. Men with whom he could discuss his service, women with whom he could debate matters of healthy eating and living, children whom he could entertain endlessly. It was incredible to watch him slide from one conversation to another.

She envied that, he was good at communication. He was fantastic at it. Yinu likely had no idea the J she met, the mister J was a little slice of the greater whole. He was good at dividing himself among his audience, maybe that was part of having wetware shoved in your brain. It made that sort of thing easier...she’d have to ask. It could be appealing to her. 

“Well...sometimes J likes to try strange things.” Eve tells Yinu who seems to accept this. “He’s got a very hairy leg,” Eve says and Yinu giggles at the idea of J having hair at all. “He used to shave an awful lot but shaving your legs as a man isn’t as common as it is for a lady. They can still do it but you can understand men get...hairier.” 

“Oh yeah!” Yinu points at Zuke. “Look at how much hair he has.” Yinu turns and looks to Eve. “But you probably have the most here.” Yinu mumbles. “It’s hard to tell because of how he does his hair, it’s fine though it looks good.” 

“Thanks.” Zuke replies with a small laugh. “It takes a long time to get it like this.” He moved his head slowly to let the long strands wave. “But once you get it the way you like then it’s just touch ups.” 

“Hmm.” Yinu said, “I don’t think I could do that. My hair is...rebellious.” Yinu muttered. “That’s what my mum says when she brushes it in the mornings.” That gets a little aww out of Mayday. “Your hair is really short.”

“I don’t like long hair. I kept getting it in the way when I was playing.” Mayday sighs. “It got to be such a hassle. Even this feels too long sometimes.” Mayday wishes she had the power to get a proper rocker hairdo. The kind of big crazy manes that move like water when heads started banging. “Not for me!” She groans, hair metal fantasies floating around in her mind. But that wasn’t important, what was….leg man. “So...how does ZUKE get involved?” 

“Oh!” Yinu goes back to sketching, if she got much slower she’d have nothing to show her mother when she came to collect her. “Eve had said that she had a friend who used to help her with wax. She called him the leg man,” Yinu says this very innocently but Mayday can’t help but turn to look at Zuke. 

A hand raises from the floor, jerks Mayday’s head back around. 

“Face. Front.” Eve tells her, voice terse. “Don’t...disrupt the drawing.” Eve can’t help but work faster. Maybe if she finishes she can find something new to do with Yinu. Something that isn’t drilling her for information on conversations. She can’t even bear to look around the canvas. She watches through eyes littered around the gallery, secreted in paintings or dangling from charms. 

In this place Eve is everywhere, she sees all and can hear all. She fancies she can hear the redness spreading across Zuke’s neck up toward his jaw. What had she told Neon J? Oh nothing but Zuke was aware that apparently Eve had no concept of a filter. He can still see Tatiana’s grinning mug across the chess board. She knew things, things only he and Eve should have known. 

“The leg man.” Mayday drags the words out. “She say….why he was called that?” 

“Eve said he was good with her legs.” Yinu goes on. “She said that he was really good with his legs too and he has bare legs.” Yinu points at Zuke, his pants leg hanging just slightly high against the table edge. It was...smooth. “So he’s gotta be the guy, right?” 

“Yes!” Zuke goes on. The story had an innocent ending. “I am the leg guy and that is why I am called the leg guy. No other reasons.” Zuke says with a cough. “I helped Eve wax her legs...and my own.” 

“I’ve never seen you do that.” Mayday wants to turn and look but she doesn’t want another creepy face hand to spin her around. “When do you wax your legs?”

“Oh the second you vanish, ever.” Zuke replies with a wan smile. “I want you, Mayday, to pretend you are not Mayday. But someone who knows Mayday. Would you ever trust yourself with something like that?” Zuke is amazed when she thinks, quietly works through the scenario in her head.

“WIth my life.” Mayday answers.

“May me and you beat up the entire city. I could not trust any living person more than I trust you. I will never let you wax my legs.” Zuke smiles as he watches Mayday shudder around and try to catch a look at him out of the corner of her eyes. He can’t help but notice Eve behind her easel...well the parts of her he can see. Legs, very long legs...very...very long legs. 

He can’t help but remember a day years ago. Eve looked at him as he held the very edge of a wax strip, dozens of arms wrapped around her chest, clasped over her mouth. She nodded once and Zuke nodded in return. Zuke pulled and the next thing he knew he was falling for seven and half minutes through a void of crystals into a lake of tears. The things that happen when you date someone who shakes reality around like a cocktail. 

It was a rough first session. It was nearly the last session. After falling for seven minutes Zuke wasn’t exactly content to do that again. Boy did that excuse not last very long. The Diva Realm was a place that became very familiar to him during college life, much as he wished it hadn’t. 

But alas the night of wax was a bi-monthly tradition for her and monthly for him. Zuke would admit it, he liked his legs to look good. He’d seen D.K. once leaving the shower, without any shame or towel. The man had a chest like a bear rug had been stapled to it, his back looked as if it had built in hand holds and that was during his….beard phase. To think the human body could produce so much hair. 

He remembered West, smiling smugly at him. “You like it? The ladies, they love it Zuke. Nothing better than a man with a bit of hair on his chest, yah?” He laughed at the look he received. “I mean maybe not for you, lil bro. You got that troll doll lookin thing gowan on.” He had laughed and scarpered off to find a towel but Zuke...Zuke never forgot that line. 

Blue hair wasn’t bad, he loved his hair. But...the idea of...it being...everywhere was. No, he didn’t like it at all. The idea of being as hairy as West but in his own little neon blue tint. He couldn’t survive college like that! They’d murder him, he can already picture West prepping lines as soon as he sees how hard this hit him. 

So Zuke went looking for an answer and he found one in a four week treatment and a lot of disposable razors. He had to admit it might be the most economical grooming routine but the idea of all that blue hair… 

“My mum has nice hair,” Yinu talking breaks Zuke out of his mind, “but she always complains that she wants hair like mine. I can’t imagine her with curls though.” Yinu smirks a little. “Did you ever want different hair Eve?”

“I mean…” Eve looks at Yinu and shrugs. “My hair is the way I want it to be, always.” Eve tells them and gestures. Eve’s hair seems to shudder, twist and then it’s suddenly shorn in tight to the scalp. Yinu pulls a face. Eve and Zuke watch as a mohawk towers over the easel. Another face from Yinu- 

“THIS ONE STAY THAT WAY FOREVER!” Mayday demands. “Or at least until I get a camera!”

It shifts and warps and changes a dozen more times, volume, colour, everything until it slides back to how it was. “My hair is as much under my control as the rest of me. Should I desire a new look it can be done with ease.” 

“Lucky.” Yinu tells her.

“I agree so hard. That would be the best thing.” Mayday’s head cycles through the many impossible and improbable edifices one could construct with perfect hair at your command. There would be no look she could not chase. 

“It’s just hair,” Eve tells them both, “you can do this it’ll just...take a bit longer.” Eve chuckles and Yinu and May share a look. “What?”

“I don’t think hair works like that, Eve.” Mayday tells her flatly. “I am pretty sure if I mess up a hairdo it’s gonna take me a bit to be able to try again.” She sighs...memories of a fade cut that thanks to her hair just made her look like she had a mile wide bald spot. She wore a hat most of that year. 

“Yeah plus,” Yinu tugs at their hair and upon release the coil springs back up. “Style changing isn’t that easy either. I think it would take….hours with a straightener to do what you just did.” 

Eve purses her lips and sighs. Another couple of strokes and she’s sure she can feel all the eyes on her. The topic of hair and the amount of time it takes to fix it has her thinking. Spiraling back down, a dozen eyes look at Zuke’s hair. It’s longer than it was at college but...that’s cheating. It could be a lot longer too. It was an accident and they were trying to move past it but honestly the smell of burning hair can linger. It can linger nearly a decade down the line. 

A long sweep. “I think I might be finished.” Eve tells the room and Yinu leans a little to peek. Her mouth becomes a tight little circle. Looking down at the pencil in her hand and then the one Eve was holding, making sure there wasn’t a trick to it. She spies on the image and keeps looking between it and the people on the little stage. 

“It’s so good.” Yinu tells her breathlessly and Eve can’t help but smile down at her, moving around to look at Yinu’s efforts. “It’s way better than mine.” Yinu sounds slightly hurt and Eve knows this to be a fact. But...she thinks of J and how he acts around the tiny performer. 

“Oooh no,” Eve gushes waving a hand at Yinu, “you’ve done fantastic work Yinu.” It wasn’t superb but for a nine year old it was impressive. For a nine year old who had only really started doing this out of having something to do while their piano was being fixed and found some enjoyment out of it she had progressed in leaps and bounds. 

Eve was petrified when Neon J appeared with her one day and told her they’d be working on some drawing. It wasn’t...really a thing she did, teaching people. There was a bad track record when it came to Eve moulding people, it was a habit that needed broken and quickly. Zuke had been…

Yinu was different though. Being so young and nearly unversed in the idea of drawing and creating anything that wasn’t music she took to every lesson with boundless enthusiasm. From figure drawing, still life, paints, even clay work at times. Albeit...on a very small scale, throwing Yinu in the deep end of art was both literal and metaphorical in delightful ways. Slowly Neon J stopped showing up but every other week Yinu would appear with her mother and be Eve’s little partner for a couple of hours. 

It was at first a distraction but she found Yinu needed little looking after, just a bit of idle conversation while working and a break for food. That was a thing, food for children. J had left snacks behind once or twice and it was entirely the job of a single staff member to ensure there were always snacks on site for Yinu should it be required. 

The gallery...Eve ran it but she was aware people in the district needed jobs and so of course she filled little spaces with people. Guides, assistants, paperwork people, someone to run the gift shop of course and the snack person. Eve handled the rest, everything to do with the art and the acquiring of more art. That was her domain...these people were just here to watch the building for her. 

She might have let the lights burn out in the Dream-Fever district but that was only because it made the stars shine brighter in the sky. She was still aware she had to keep these people in good health. Jobs helped, money helped and food helped. So long as she did that she couldn’t imagine how you would ever complain. 

That wasn’t accurate at all but...she was learning things like that. 

“You’re getting so good at faces,” Eve tells Yinu and means it, “you do eyes so well. Goodness me,” she can’t help but grin at the accuracy in Mayday’s pained grimace, “headshots might be your special talent.” 

“Nooo.” Yinu waves a hand at Eve. “It’s not that good.”

“Mayday, would you like to put your foot down and come see this?” Eve invites Maday whose foot falls so hard a painting or two rattles. Mayday drags it across the ground, advancing on the two artists. “Fall asleep?”

“I can wake up if you want. Flying kick to th-” Zuke coughs. “A little!” Mayday manages between clenched teeth, they were lucky Yinu was here. She’d beat Zuke with his giant crazy friend. Mayday waggles her leg, trying to get a feeling back in the thing. Each footfall sounds like thunder until she scoots behind the easel. 

“So what?” Mayday asks. “Where’s the drawing?” She goes on and Eve looks at her. “This is clearly a photograph of me and Zuke, you cheating back here?” She asks Yinu who can’t look at the two artists throwing compliments her way, the beret is pulled down over her face. 

“You two are teasin me.” Yinu mutters, crossing her arms and swaying from side to side, twisting at the waist and looking down. Mayday clutches her chest, swooning at the sheer level of adorable the concert grade pianist can just PRODUCE at will. Her other hand seizes Eve at the shoulder and the diva shakes her head, a little laugh from her nose. 

“Not at all, Yinu.” Eve tells her. “It’s very good.”

“It’s like very me.” Mayday says looking at the drawing of her. The arms are too long, the shape is wonky all over but that face. The big eyes and the barely held back scream, locked behind big tombstone thick teeth. That’s her, she can see herself in that face. “You also do my hair better than I do.”

“It’s like drawing stick man hands.” Yinu says and Zuke makes a sound followed by a much louder sound. The trio peek and he’s fallen over. 

“In my defence...that was hilarious.” Zuke tells the group who start to laugh at him. “At least I don’t have stick man hands for hair!”

“Your hair is more like drawing pants.” Yinu tells him and Mayday screams, slapping her thighs. She’s bent double, wheezing a few moments later pointing at Zuke who hasn’t bothered to get up yet, he knows when he’s lost a fight. THat was a right hook from the 2ft wonder with the cherub cheeks and the curly hair. He’s seeing stars, you can’t insult a kid to their face. It’s not done. 

“I love you,” Mayday said lifting Yinu off the ground. “You are the best person in this entire building, Yinu and you are my new favourite. You’re the new drummer for Bunkbed Junction, you just murdered my old one.” 

“She means that.” Eve tells Yinu. “She means that, I had to replace him once.” She tells Yinu who looks at Mayday with horror and attempts to escape the grip they find themselves in. 

“Rocker! Rocker! ROCKER!” Mayday chants lifting Yinu up and down and marching out of the room. The tiny concertmaster flails desperately for help. “We’re gonna go learn how to drum on everything now. Everything in this place is getting drummed to heck and back!” 

“I don’t wanna!” Yinu cries out as Mayday sprints down the corridor carrying her along. A moment later a harried young lady chases after them.

“PLEASE MISS MAYDAY! I BEG YOU DO NOT RUN IN HERE!” She calls aware that her words have no power over Mayday, words have never once held sway over Mayday’s actions. 

Eve for her part moves over to the fallen Zuke. His face placid, staring up past Eve at the rain soaked glass ceiling above, rivers of the stuff running down to the street. “You lost your job,” Eve tells him with a sigh, “you’re very easily replaceable to that woman.” 

“She doesn’t know how hard it is to play drums.” Zuke cracks a smile. “Drummers, we’re all animals until you need us.” He sits up with a loud sigh. “I can’t believe you waxed a cyborg’s legs. You were awful at it. That’s the whole reason I was there to do it.” 

“I have improved with time,” Eve folds her arms across her chest, eyes narrow, “besides he has a supercomputer for a brain. He can work out waxing very quickly, he did very quickly. He surmised he would never do it again.” 

“Smarter man than me.” Zuke scratches his head. “Maybe I gotta get a super computer up in my head.”

“His isn’t in his head,” Eve starts to walk away and Zuke feels an insistent shove at his back, “it’s in a specially kept pool under the mansion, where it is supervised by no less than twenty people at a time.” She goes on as hands push Zuke to his feet and urge he follow, so he does. 

“He showed you his brain?” Zuke asks. 

“You showed me your waxing kit,” Eve shrugs and casts a smirk back over her shoulder, “men like to show me strange things it seems.” 

“Did he make a joke about how big it was?” Zuke asks and Eve makes a low sound in the back of her throat, attempts at being sly falling apart instantly. “I bet he did.”

“No….1010 made several though.” She tells him and Zuke snickers at that. “All Neon J did was briefly explain how it worked. Apparently he needs at least one or two members of NSR to be aware of the basic operations of the device and 1010 don’t count.” 

“So...what you and Subatomic are his...brain backup buddies?” Zuke isn’t trying to be alliterate, it just happens by mistake. They’re walking back to the easels and Zuke smiles at Yinu’s work. 

“She really is good at faces, wow.” Zuke has to lean in close, to make out his own features but it’s pretty good. “Wow...my hair does look like pant legs...why has nobody told me this?” 

“We never had the heart.” Eve smiles. “But something like that. Neon J simply has fallbacks and I’m part of one of those fallbacks.” She goes on. “I’ve got to remember lots of numbers and sequences and patterns to input should he need that service carried out.” She taps the side of her head with one finger. “It’s a lot easier than what Subatomic has to do, he’s got all this jargon to build and make work.” 

“Hm,” Zuke stands up and moves to Eve’s drawing, “well that’s certainly a bit of favouritism.” He smirks at Eve and looks at her canvas. A lovingly, intricately detailed rendition of himself sat at that chair. The lighting has been played with somewhat to give him an underlit look, as if he’s about to tell the scariest ghost story that he knows. He’s been drawn in...not at all what he’s wearing, instead put into some sort of fancy dress costume with ruffled sleeves and silk flowing around it. “Am I going to a dance party or am I Drac..” He cuts himself off, small world, small world. 

“I was feeling rather macabre.” Eve tells him. “The impish specimen hardly helped.” She rolls her eyes toward the little Mayday dancing on Zuke’s shoulder. Guitar changed for a pitchfork and fire concealed behind clenched teeth. Rather than pained she appeared stymied, stuck dancing around forever. “It was her face honestly, just screams little devil.” 

“Ha ha,” Zuke leans forward resting his hands on his stomach...The thinking pose. “You don’t do this sort of thing for nothing, Eve...Am I supposed to pick this apart or can we still talk about our feelings?” 

“I’d like to think we can do both, Zuke. We’re adults and it helps to keep certain skills sharp.” He feels her fingers rest on his back. “Go on, let’s see if you can still prattle on like you could to run out the class clock in college.” She teases but he can hear her smile. 

“The fact you’re just drawing directy what you saw might mean that you’re still not sure of your view on the world as the correct one. The fact that Mayday is represented, albeit amusingly,” he confesses, “ as a little torturous devil tells me you’re still not her biggest fan.”

“Zuke there are people on the moon who could tell you that.” Eve leans against his back, he can feel a pair of arms slide around his chest, “what else...come on. You’re good at this.” 

“The fact I’m underlit infers that I’m either a sinister figure. Light from below isn’t the easiest sort of lighting and often comes from artificial sources. It makes faces look unfriendly by default. Most often used for high contrast pieces or movie monsters,” he lets out a sigh at that and the feeling of her arms around him. “That said underlighting can also be used to denote a sad tone, a misunderstanding that sort of thing.” He groans as her feels Eve’s weight settle on his back. “Clearly I’m being led astray or something I’m doing is evil, considering I am dressed like some kind of...fancy guy.” Zuke turns his head to try and work out which fancy guy. 

“I have to assume that…” Zuke lets out a little. “Oooh I almost missed that,” he taps the edge of the frame, “the stage’s edge. Very scratchy, was someone in a rush?” 

“Someone might have been wanting to save someone else from embarrassment.” She tells him softly. “I don’t mind talking about my legs or what we did with them, you’re the one who scraped back in his chair.” 

“You broke a pencil.” Zuke tells her. Her fingertips drum, once on his stomach. “Haaa.” He takes the little win. “So clearly I’m a sinister man on a stage, being driven by his devils to appear wicked. Or...the devil is confused by me...You think I’m acting, don’t you?” 

“There’s...a lack of information Zuke.” Eve tells him her voice is quiet but intense. “The girl doesn’t know a lot about you and either that’s on purpose or there’s a reason she doesn’t know.” Eve’s grip grows a little tighter and he feels a pinch in his stomach. “You don’t keep secrets or at least...you didn’t.” 

“Mayday knows plenty about me.” 

“She didn’t know you had a brother, didn’t know you had an art degree, didn’t know you at one point dated the most popular musician in the entire city if not the world.” Eve tells him and Zuke bites back something snide he could say to that because she might be right. “Is there...a reason...you’re keeping secrets from the girl?” 

“I…” Zuke swallows. “Eve...Nadia,” he trails off, “I...I’m having trouble remembering things.” He tells her. “There’s...like a gap or a haze that I can’t get around. Like time went missing or I just slept through it all. I get pieces of it but not a whole picture.” 

Eve doesn’t say anything. She just lets him go on. 

His voice comes out slowly, he’s not told anyone this. It all existed in his head until right now. “I think I forgot some things, there’s just a lot of missing pieces. Until I met Mayday there’s just,” he shakes his head, “I sort of drifted around a lot after college. But trying to remember is hard. It comes naturally or not at all.” 

“Have you...been hurt?” Eve asks him, what does he know? What does he remember? 

“I,” he laughs, “I actually hit my head on a sewer pipe a few nights ago.”

“You what?” Eve stands him up and spins him around to look at her. She’s very close, hands- lots of hands- swarming Zuke for signs of damage. “How did you do that you silly thing?” She asks him, fingers sliding across his forehead where she feels the bump. “Did...are you wearing concealer?” 

“It’s a very big bruise.” Zuke mutters trying to lean back or at least lean away from the big eyes but he can’t really manage it. “I just...I had a dumb dream.” 

“Dumb how?” Eve’s arms slide back, withdrawn into nothing. If Zuke is being unreliable with information to the girl, Mayday, perhaps when he offers anything Eve should bite. So she does. 

“It was a...I don’t remember much of it,” Zuke tells her, “most people don’t remember their dreams.”

“Zuke even I do not remember my dreams. Liminal sleep is beyond me.” Eve says this but leaves out the fact she hasn’t slept in nearly three years. She hasn’t bothered, it took up too much and one day it stopped being necessary. So many things stopped being necessary one day out of the blue. 

“I think...you were there. We were….talking about...movie monsters I think,” Zuke can’t dislodge the dream but he can’t recall it either, it’s a portrait on wheels getting further and further away from him. Dragged back into the shadows by someone just off stage, he doesn’t need to remember the details. “I...don’t remember everything but I remember it ends with a bite.”

“A bite,” she smirks a little, “not like the little ones from-”

“YEAH” Zuke stands up, he leans into Eve but unlike a sensible person she doesn’t retreat so now he’s just pressing his forehead against hers. “Did you...DID YOU…” Zuke lowers his voice to a whisper. “Did you really...tell Tatiana all about us?” 

“She asked.” Eve replies, shrugging her shoulders. Zuke’s mouth falls open and he moves away. Eve follows, the closeness was nice. She misses touch, she forgot how nice it felt to just...share space with someone. Zuke was very easy to share space with, he didn’t take up too much and he was very relaxed about personal boundaries. “Was that not okay? I was rather made to.”

“Made to?” Zuke rubs at his cheeks. “Oh my, what kind of contract does NSR have that you gotta disclose...where you gave me hickeys and other private things.” He doesn’t want to say it, he is sure even this conversation has triggered some sixth sense for gossip Mayday has built into her brain. 

“Well some of that was disclosure but Tatiana just asked so I just told her.” Eve nods. “She was very interested in my past and all the details I could share about my powers and where they might have found their genesis.” She stops to keep from walking into Zuke, who twists to get a face full of Eve up close. He steps back quickly, she just peers down at him. Owlish eyes watching him. 

“It...I just don’t know that it was...all relevant.” Zuke mumbles. “I had to play her at chess and she brought up all these things.” 

“She loves chess,” Eve’s voice is far away and her eyes half lidded, “she loves to win at chess.” She goes on. “Does she make you play white?"

“To give me the-”

“Idea of an advantage.” Eve concludes and Zuke looks at her. “I’ve had to play her for years now...I’ve not done well.” 

“I’m not starting great...wasn’t helped when she you know busted out the I know what you and your ex did in bed talk.” Zuke mutters. “I can’t believe that she thinks I have a thing for legs and getting bit and you told her about the time with the arms and the mirror an-”

“Wait,” Eve holds up a hand, “you do have… a thing for legs.” Eve tells him, hands on her hips. “You very obviously have a thing for legs, Zuke.” She goes on and he looks away. 

“I...it’s not legs. “Zuke folds his arms and keeps looking at the door. “It’s not.” He tells her and she leans down toward him. “W...what?”

“It was legs.” She tells him again. “You recall my being there, present, for most of that formative time correct?” She presses a hand to his chest and he falls back. Arms windmill but he’s caught, suddenly when a large hand slides free of the ground. He rests in the palm as the ring and index fingers fold over his shoulders, trapping him in place. She places her leg down in front of him, directly between his own legs. “I recall a lot of time being spent on this area.” 

“I mean...it’s a nice area.” Zuke mutters. “But it’s ummm…” His eyes go up. “Not...really the umm...parts I’m,” he coughs, “Eve this is a topic not for...friends right?”

“No, I'm curious now.” She leans on her knee. “I’m content to stay like this until Mayday and Yinu return-”

“Amazing that she’s THAT GIRL when you have a deep suspicion of me but when you can use her it’s Mayday, huh?” Zuke grins a little bit at that. “You do like her...when she’s of use.” Zuke mutters. “It’s progress.” 

“Zuke, they could come back anytime.” She looks at her nails. 

“You used to be such a nice girl,” Zuke mumbles softly, entirely aware this was….just slightly something that tickles his reptile brain. Oh wow he really needed help, he needed a lot of help. “Okay but...you can’t...tell anyone this time, Eve. I mean it.” He hisses the last part. 

“Go on. If it’s not legs….what is it?” She rests her weight on her leg and he looks up at her, a slight smile on his face. A dusting of colour on his face. 

“I...really...like umm…”he looks toward the door, “tall girls.” He says it quickly. He keeps his eyes on the door. He hears a low sound, lips popping apart. He coughs. “You know...you were...taller.” He says as if she needs reminding. “I almost thought you were….like really tall when we fought and I was...super confused. Like, ha ha….”

“I was.” Eve replies and Zuke takes a long breath in. “Zuuuuuke.”

“Eve I thought….we were trying something new, right?” Zuke doesn’t look at her, in that direction is temptation. In that direction is death. “Like you know...what did you say? Close but not together?” He asks as he feels a hand grip his chin. A thumb resting just below his lip and turning him slowly. 

“Tall...is it?” She asks him and he nods slowly, the smile on her face is honestly the worst thing that he’s ever seen. “When we fought I was...a little bit...more impressive?” She grins at him, teeth on display and Zuke can’t really look away.

“EVE.” He forces her name out. “Remember...the whole...we’re not a couple thing, right? We’re...trying something new. Yeah?” 

“Of course, Zuke.” Eve tells him. “Close but not together.” She says it again. He has to crane his head back as slowly she grows just a little taller...then a little more, then a little more. “I want you to feel comfortable is all.”

“This is torture.” Zuke tells her, his eyes the size of plates. “This is an evil thing you’re doing. Other people will notice this and someone will ask why.”

“No they won’t.” Eve tells him. “Nobody asks questions, they just enjoy the show.” She lifts her foot and Zuke is pushed back to his feet. He does not come up to the same place on the diva he did a few minutes ago. He stares very awkwardly at directly at the part of her he is level with. Looking up will destroy him utterly and he knows that. 

He feels a hand rest on his head. He sighs softly, he’s not gonna play this game. He can’t win it.

The hand gives way to an elbow as he feels her lean on his head, casually. “Zuke, look up.”

“You used to be such a nice girl.” Zuke says again looking at his feet. There’s a clacking sound and the ground turns to glass. He’s looking up by looking down...only Eve cold do that. “Ohhh jeez…” He puts his hands on his hips. “Yeah...yeah...that’s...that’s about as talls as you were when you kicked me in the face.” 

“Didn’t have to lift my leg very high.” She smirks as his eyes close. “Oh have a little fun, Zuke. Just a bit. Bad girls are in, so I hear.” 

Zuke makes a quiet sound in his throat and then something shatters in the distance. Eve’s head snaps up. She bolts off and he stands there. 

“I’m….in a lot of trouble.” Zuke and Mayday say this...both for very different but very valid reasons. Both would be right.

**Author's Note:**

> Some more fun here and there, yes? I like to have fun. We'll be going into serious waters again soon people but I sort of have to get comfortable with writing these people before I mess around in the SERIOUS direction. So I hope you enjoyed and remember to tear fast and hard and quickly and if you cry that means it's working. Take it from me.


End file.
